Month: May 2019

Selling realness. That’s the essence of Harlem’s tight-knit drag ball scene, where dazzling kiki competitions — made popular in 1991’s landmark LGBT documentary “Paris Is Burning,” and still raging strong all these years later via “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and Ryan Murphy’s “Pose” on TV — celebrate the art of passing as something other than whatever
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CANNES— Chile’s Jirafa Films, producer of Christopher Murray’s “The Blind Christ” and Alicia Scherson’s “Il Futuro” has teamed with Zafiro Cinema in Mexico, Chile’s Calamar Cine and Bolivia’s Color Monster to produce Vinko Tomičić sophomore outing, “Dogs” (“Perros”). “Dogs” won the Best Pitch Award at the spring session of Cannes’ Cinéfondation Résidence. It will follow
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In today’s film news roundup, Paramount wins a Chris Hemsworth–Tiffany Haddish project, “Wallflower” gets bought, Valeria Cotto gets cast and Roger Corman receives an honor. ACQUISITIONS Paramount Pictures has bought worldwide rights to “Down Under Cover,” a buddy comedy starring Chris Hemsworth and Tiffany Haddish in a deal worth an estimated $40 million. Paramount came
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May 17, 2019 6:59PM PT Warner Bros. has dated its new “Mortal Kombat” movie for March 5, 2021, with James Wan producing and Simon McQuoid directing. “Mortal Kombat” will do battle on its opening date with Sony Pictures’ fantasy adventure “Masters of the Universe,” which Noah Centineo will lead as the Most Powerful Man in
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The first sounds, over the black of the opening titles, are of tiny, gasping breaths catching in a throat. It could be a death rattle or an asthma attack or the last throes of a strangulation, but it is undoubtedly a human in distress. And it’s a very close analog for how “Beanpole,” the slow,
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Google will shut down Jump, its cloud-based video stitching service, this summer. The company emailed creators Friday afternoon to tell them that Jump would be shuttered on June 28, and detailed plans for the shut-down on its website as well. In its email, Google justified the closure of Jump with the emergence of new video
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May 17, 2019 4:19PM PT Paul Haggis and Dan Krauss’s traditionally styled documentary about an influential AIDS nursing ward delivers primarily on feeling. “It was a wonderful place where you could go to die — but it doesn’t take away from the fact that they died.” This is how one interviewee describes 5B, the trailblazing
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Welcome to “TV Take,” Variety’s television podcast. “Veep” ended its Emmy-winning run on HBO May 12. Throughout the past seven seasons, pretty much everyone on the political comedy has taken aim at the idiotic and power-hungry Jonah, played by Timothy Simons. However, Selina Meyer’s (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) attack in the last episode takes the cake, according to
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Streaming service MUBI — whose first production, transgender love story “Port Authority” from first-time director Danielle Lessovitz, is in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard — is stepping up film production activity. It now has plans for a 10-picture slate, including a film from French director Rachel Lang. MUBI has boarded Lang’s “Mon Legionnaire,” her follow-up to
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After recently hosting Michael Bay’s big-budget actioner “6 Underground” and George Clooney-directed series “Catch 22,” Rome’s Cinecittà Studios is set to welcome several more productions with Hollywood ties. The next one is Netflix witchcraft series “Luna Nera,” helmed by a trio of Italian women: Francesca Comencini (“Gomorra”), Susanna Nicchiarelli (“Nico, 1988”) and Paola Randi (“Little
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Wizart, Russia’s leading animation producer, has inked a co-production pact with U.S. sales and finance company QED Intl. Last month, Wizart’s “The Snow Queen: Fire and Ice,” the third pic in the franchise, became the highest-grossing Russian film in the international box office of all time with a $20.3 million gross worldwide, excluding Russia, where
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“Flight Risk” is taking off with Great Point, which has boarded sales on the U.S.-produced thriller. The film follows a group of strangers who wake up with amnesia on a bullet-ridden plane. Luis Prieto, who helmed the remake of Nicolas Winding Refn’s “Pusher,” is attached to direct. The action thriller is being produced by L.A.-based
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Salty Pictures, the production and finance company headed by Jonah Greenberg, CAA’s former head in China, has unveiled a five-picture production slate in tandem with Thailand’s The Studio Park Prods. (TSPP), including a Chinese-language film together with Johnny Depp and his Infinitum Nihil partner Sam Sarkar. Studio Park is a leading facilities provider and property
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“John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum” is gearing up to take down Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. Lionsgate’s third installment of the Keanu Reeves action franchise is over-performing forecasts, which had been in the $30 million and $35 million range. With at least $50 million at 3,850 sites, it should handily beat the fourth weekend of Disney-Marvel’s
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